Dave Thul: In Iraq as in football, defense is crucial
American troops may miss home, but many want Congress to stop calling for retreat.
Dave Thul
Published: March 18, 2007

As the debate over the war in Iraq rages, it is easy for many to forget what a big stake Minnesota has in the war right now. As we close out the fourth year since the invasion, another milestone is here that hits very close to home.
March is the month that many of the almost 3,000 Minnesota National Guardsmen were scheduled to come home. But after 12 months in Iraq, and a year and a half since we left home, our deployment has been extended by up to another four months. This also puts us right in the middle of the debate of the day, the surge plan to secure Baghdad. As Congress consumes itself with nonbinding resolutions and appropriations bills with just the right mix of carrots and sticks, one of the most important opinions is being overlooked -- that of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving here in Iraq.

I won't pretend to speak for everyone in uniform over here, and in fact no one ever could. There are as many opinions in the military as there are in the civilian world. But I can tell you that a majority of U.S. troops want to stay in Iraq and finish the mission. How do I know this? Two ways.

The first is anecdotally, from the men and women I work with and talk to every day. I have yet to meet someone who thinks the long-term good of the United States and the Middle East would be served by an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Many of us are tired and frustrated and miss our families and just want to go home. But we want to go home after transferring our area of responsibility to another unit, whether it is U.S. or Iraqi. We don't want to abandon our posts.

The second way I know that my fellow soldiers want to stay is that they have been saying so in a petition to Congress. At the AppealForCourage.org website, more than 1,500 service members in less than a month have signed an appeal for redress, the officially authorized method for the military to ask Congress to right a wrong, asking Congress to stop calling for retreat and to support our mission.

Day after day we see and hear our elected leaders in Washington telling us that the war is already lost or that it is not winnable. Nothing could be further from the truth. The essence of the military mission here is really quite simple. Train the Iraqi army and police to do the job that we are currently doing, give them the reins, and then take our leave. It is a slow job, but steady progress is being made. Already entire provinces of Iraq are under Iraqi military control. In more than 70 percent of the country, the Iraqi army and police are in the lead.

My dad, a lifelong Vikings fan who raised me the same way, once shared a bit of wisdom about football that I find remarkably pertinent to the situation in Iraq today. He told me that offense sells tickets, but defense wins games.

When we were invading Iraq, the media gave us nonstop coverage of every city that was secured and every Republican Guard unit that was destroyed or that surrendered. Great headlines about the offensive were everywhere. But over the past few years, we have settled into the day-to-day job of building up the Iraqi military -- the slow defensive work of keeping the peace and wearing down the terrorists. Boring to the media, yet crucial to victory.

There can be no compromises in Iraq, no negotiated peace. The enemy here is radical Islam, whether in the sectarian violence in Baghdad that seeks to draw all of the Middle East into open war, or the terrorists of Al-Qaida here in the Anbar province who are looking for a new home base since we kicked them out of Afghanistan. If we pull out before the job is done, we will face not only the same chaos and genocide that we saw after pulling out of Vietnam, but we will leave Iraq in a power vacuum with greedy and ambitious neighbors on all sides.

I've now been deployed 2½ years of the 3½ years since my daughter was born. I would love nothing more than to be at home sharing in her young life and enjoying a Minnesota summer. But I want to come home with honor, knowing that I have helped to make the world she will live in a little safer.

"This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list."

I am now going to do my "Amazing Kreskin" imitation....

even without being able to see this post, I am going to say that it is a multi-paragraph cut and paste from newsmax or perhaps the washington times or some other conservative rag and the thread's originator, the inimitable red states rule, has added, at best, a sentence of his own thought to the end of it. Am I right or not?

"This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list."

I am now going to do my "Amazing Kreskin" imitation....

even without being able to see this post, I am going to say that it is a multi-paragraph cut and paste from newsmax or perhaps the washington times or some other conservative rag and the thread's originator, the inimitable red states rule, has added, at best, a sentence of his own thought to the end of it. Am I right or not?

"This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list."

I am now going to do my "Amazing Kreskin" imitation....

even without being able to see this post, I am going to say that it is a multi-paragraph cut and paste from newsmax or perhaps the washington times or some other conservative rag and the thread's originator, the inimitable red states rule, has added, at best, a sentence of his own thought to the end of it. Am I right or not?

Click to expand...

No prize goes to you anyway - he always does that!
But admit it: You are a bit curious, aren't you? FMI: Why do you have people on 'ignore'?

No prize goes to you anyway - he always does that!
But admit it: You are a bit curious, aren't you? FMI: Why do you have people on 'ignore'?

Click to expand...

no...I really am not. If I wanted to subscribe to a neoconservative clipping service, I would just do so. If I want to engage others in debate using my own words and going up against someone else's own words, I have learned that putting red states rule on ignore makes that infinitely easier to accomplish.... my reply to this thread was just a little joke made partly in response to the taunting thread about me last night that was nothing but:

This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.

so I was fairly certain that the two of them were trying to outdo one another in childish insults.... kind of like a circle jerk between two adolescent sociopaths...

so... it's kind of fun to poke a stick at one or both of them once in a while and not give them the satisfaction of reading their replies.

no...I really am not. If I wanted to subscribe to a neoconservative clipping service, I would just do so. If I want to engage others in debate using my own words and going up against someone else's own words, I have learned that putting red states rule on ignore makes that infinitely easier to accomplish.... my reply to this thread was just a little joke made partly in response to the taunting thread about me last night that was nothing but:

This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.

so I was fairly certain that the two of them were trying to outdo one another in childish insults.... kind of like a circle jerk between two adolescent sociopaths...

so... it's kind of fun to poke a stick at one or both of them once in a while and not give them the satisfaction of reading their replies.

Click to expand...

This proves my point MM is scared of a debate - much like his fellow peace niks.

He ignores the letter from a man fighing in Iraq who expresses his deisre to finish the job

Remember, MM also supports the elected Dems who have insulted and smeared these same troops

no...I really am not. If I wanted to subscribe to a neoconservative clipping service, I would just do so. If I want to engage others in debate using my own words and going up against someone else's own words, I have learned that putting red states rule on ignore makes that infinitely easier to accomplish.... my reply to this thread was just a little joke made partly in response to the taunting thread about me last night that was nothing but:

This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because glockmail is on your ignore list.
This message is hidden because red states rule is on your ignore list.

so I was fairly certain that the two of them were trying to outdo one another in childish insults.... kind of like a circle jerk between two adolescent sociopaths...

so... it's kind of fun to poke a stick at one or both of them once in a while and not give them the satisfaction of reading their replies.

Click to expand...

Okay... I know then.
I must admit I don't read everything. It would take me forever.

This proves my point MM is scared of a debate - much like his fellow peace niks.

He ignores the letter from a man fighing in Iraq who expresses his deisre to finish the job

Remember, MM also supports the elected Dems who have insulted and smeared these same troops

Click to expand...

Yes, but actually he just seems unintrested in two users posts!
As I said, I can't read everything you post, translation alone would make it take for ever. Cross-posts are swiftly bypassed too. But to me a lot of input is valuable.

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